In the programme he had drawn up, Vladimir Ilyich introduced — in the immediately following days, it appears — "three amendments," recorded by him on a sheet attached to the draft programme (document No. 5).

6.

LENIN.

THREE AMENDMENTS.

No. 1. In paragraph (A) II, instead of the words: "The continuous improvement of technique leads to the fact that small production is increasingly displaced by large production"

substitute the following sentence:

"Technique is continuously improving, large production is spreading more widely and becoming more mighty, is developing more powerfully, while small production is increasingly displaced or falls into decline."

No. 2. In paragraph (B) VII, after the words: "All other classes of modern society stand for the preservation of the foundations of the existing economic order"

insert the words:

"and the small producer, dying under the oppression of capitalism, becomes truly revolutionary only insofar as he realizes the hopelessness of his position and passes over to the standpoint of the proletariat."

And begin the further text on a new line.

No. 3. In paragraph (B) XII, instead of the words: "condition Asiatic-barbarous forms of the dying out of many-millions of peasantry"

substitute the words:

"condition Asiatic-barbarous forms of exploitation and the agonizing dying out of many-millions of peasantry."

Martov accepted all of Lenin's amendments to the practical part of the programme and introduced three amendments to the theoretical part of the programme in Lenin's formulation. Lenin informed the other members of the editorial board of this in the following document, the introductory part of which was written in Lenin's hand. The text of the amendments itself was written in Martov's hand. All of Martov's amendments relate to document No. 5.

MARTOV. AMENDMENTS TO THE DRAFT PROGRAMME 
OF THE R.S.-D.R.P. OF LENIN.

Berg [Martov] accepts the amendments to the practical part of the programme (introduction to section G; supplement to G 8 and modification of the first and last phrase of E I).

To the principled part Berg [Martov] introduces the following amendments: replace A I and II thus:

1. The development of commodity production and international exchange leads to the continuous strengthening in Russia of the capitalist mode of production, dominant in the civilized world of our time.

2. Under the capitalist mode of production, the continuous improvement of technique increases the economic significance of large enterprises and thereby narrows the role of small independent producers (peasants, artisans, craftsmen) in the economic life of society, lowering their standard of living, displacing some into the ranks of proletarians, transforming others directly or indirectly into servants and dependents of capital. The most important part of the means of production (land and factories, tools and machines, railways and other means of communication) becomes concentrated in the hands of a comparatively small number of capitalists and large landowners as their private property, while an ever-larger part of workers falls into the dependent position of proletarians, unable to exist without the sale of their labour-power...

MARTOV. — AMENDMENTS TO LENIN'S DRAFT PROGRAMME.

After (B) VI insert the following paragraph:

B VIII... The conscious expression of this striving of the proletariat is social-democracy. It reveals to the workers the irreconcilable contradiction between their interests and the interests of the ruling classes, organizes the proletariat for continuous struggle against all bourgeois society and clarifies for it the historical significance, character and conditions of its liberatory movement...

(B) X — delete.

G. V. Plekhanov received Lenin's draft in the second week of February and responded to it with a few lines in a letter to the Munich section of the editorial board, which we reproduce in full given that the first part of the letter, not concerning the programme, provides reference points for establishing the dating of the letter itself and consequently of Lenin's draft. Since the letters from "the young fellow," of which Plekhanov speaks at the beginning of his letter, appeared in No. 16 of *Iskra* from 1 (14) February, Plekhanov's letter could not have been written later than the second week of February, and more probably — in the latter part of the first decade of February.

8.

PLEKHANOV.

RESPONSES TO LENIN'S DRAFT.

[February, first half.]

Dear Friends!

I am forwarding to you two letters sent to the *Iskra* editorial office from some young fellow who, it seems, was an active comrade in Russia. I very much ask you to print both these letters together with editorial responses1). Concerning the first letter, — about my leading article2) — it seems to me necessary to respond that the use of firearms would be premature at present, and therefore very harmful. Let the government bear the odium of initiating such use. As for resistance with sticks, cudgels, etc., this may have happened before, but not to a sufficient degree, and this occurred for two reasons: 1) from the disorganization of resistance; 2) because demonstrations in most cases are still not mass demonstrations. That is all I wanted to say about my article, and in this sense an answer is necessary. I ask Julius Osipovich [Martov] to do this. And please do not delay until the next issue. I would not forgive myself if gunfire began because of my article: but the young fellow says this is possible.

As for the young fellow's second letter, it seems to me he is right. If you now also speak out against the literature he mentions, then I ask you to give me space to write a note in its defense3).

PLEKHANOV. — RESPONSES TO LENIN'S DRAFT.

I have just received the draft programme4). I will say for now only one thing: the general part, in my view, i s c o m p l e t e l y u n s u i t a b l e. But I will write about it later. Now I am hastening to send off the letter.

I have reread the first part of the programme once more. Can it be that Pavel [Akselrod] and Vera [Zasulich] are for it?

*) The letters of which Plekhanov speaks here appeared in No. 16 of *Iskra* from 1 (14) February in the section "From the Party" with corresponding editorial responses.

2) The leading article "On Demonstrations" in No. 14 of *Iskra* from 1(14) January.

3) The letter from the "young fellow" concerned the publication of agitational pamphlets of 3-4 sheets.

4) Reference is to document No. 5, i.e., to Lenin's formulation of the theoretical part of the programme.

Plekhanov underscored his disagreement with Lenin's draft once more in letters to V. I. Zasulich and P. B. Akselrod. In his letter to V. I. Zasulich from the beginning of March 1902 (preserved in the archive of P. B. Akselrod), he wrote that this draft was "in every sense of the word impossible," that it "would not do credit to the Group 'Emancipation of Labour.'" In his letter to Akselrod of 12 March 1902, he added that if "Frey's [Lenin's] draft is adopted," then he, Plekhanov, "will be forced to declare that he still considers it unsatisfactory. Something like a new schism will result. To prevent it, it is better to obstruct its adoption."

At the same time Plekhanov worked out a second draft of the programme. This "second draft" of Plekhanov has been preserved in Lenin's papers in a copy rewritten in an unknown hand. Like most other documents, this one bears neither date nor signature. The fact that this copy represents precisely Plekhanov's second draft is established only by comparison with Lenin's "Comments on the Draft Programme" (document No. 40). From the content of these "Comments," and especially from V. I. Zasulich's notes to these "Comments," it is evident that Lenin's "Comments" relate precisely to Plekhanov's "second draft." A comparison of Lenin's "Comments" with the above-mentioned copy shows that in the latter we have precisely that document which was before Lenin's eyes when he wrote his comments and which he cites in his "Comments." However, the expression "precisely that document" is not exact. It is more accurate to say that before us is a v a r i a n t of that document (Plekhanov's "second draft") which was before Lenin's eyes when he wrote his "Comments."

Careful study of those passages (entire sections, individual phrases, expressions and words) which Lenin c i t e s in his "Comments," and comparison of these citations with the copy we have, leads to the conclusion that before us is undoubtedly Plekhanov's "second draft," but w i t h c e r t a i n i n s i g n i f i c a n t a m e n d m e n t s introduced after Lenin's "Comments" had been written, and introduced in part precisely on the basis of these "Comments."

Strict chronological order of publication would accordingly require printing our document (No. 9) a f t e r Lenin's "Comments" (No. 10). For the convenience of the reader, we print it, however, before Lenin's "Comments." The fact is that the corrected text of Plekhanov's "second draft" we have differs only very insignificantly from the original text of Plekhanov's "second draft" which Lenin discusses and cites. Not having this original text of Plekhanov's, the reader is compelled to follow Lenin's criticism of Plekhanov's draft while keeping this corrected text before his eyes. In order to facilitate the work of the researcher, we, insofar as possible, on the basis of Lenin's citations, restore that original text of Plekhanov's "second draft" which was in Lenin's hands when he wrote his "Comments." This "reconstructed" text is given in the note to document No. 9.

9.

PLEKHANOV. "SECOND DRAFT" OF THE PROGRAMME OF THE 
RUSSIAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC WORKERS PARTY.

1. The development of international exchange has established such close connection between all peoples of the civilized world that the great liberatory movement of our time — the m o v e m e n t o f t h e p r o l e t a r i a t — necessarily had to become and long ago already became international.

2. Russian social-democrats regard their party as one of the detachments of the world-wide army of the proletariat, as a part of i n t e r n a t i o n a l s o c i a l - d e m o c r a c y.

3. They pursue the same f i n a l a i m as social-democrats of all other countries.

4. This f i n a l a i m is determined by the character and course of development of bourgeois society.

5. This society, in its developed form, is characterized by the dominance of c o m m o d i t y p r o d u c t i o n on the basis of c a p i t a l i s t i c relations of production, i.e., by the fact that although there still remains in it a layer of small independent producers, craftsmen working to order, inherited from the feudal-craft period, nevertheless the most important and significant part of articles of consumption is produced for sale on the domestic or international market, and the most important and significant part of the means of production and circulation of these articles belongs to a very small in number class of persons, while the enormous majority of the population consists partly of such persons who have nothing but their labour-power (proletarians), and partly of such as who have at their disposal only very insignificant means of production, not ensuring their existence (petty peasantry). All these persons are compelled by their economic position c o n s t a n t l y o r p e r i o d i c a l l y (throughout the whole year or several months of the year) t o s e l l t h e i r l a b o u r - p o w e r, i.e., to become wage-workers of those who possess the means of production and circulation of commodities, and by t h e i r l a b o u r t o c r e a t e t h e i r i n c o m e (ground rent, entrepreneurial profit, interest on capital).

6. The dominance of capitalist relations of production expands more and more in bourgeois society as the continuous improvement of technique, increasing the economic significance of large industrial enterprises, causes a relative decrease in the number of small independent producers, transforming some of them into proletarians forced to sell their labour-power, narrows the role of the rest in the socio-economic life of society, and in some places even directly places them in more or less complete dependence on large entrepreneurs.

7. The continuous improvement of technique at the same time gives entrepreneurs the possibility of increasing the use of female and child labour in the process of production and circulation of commodities. All this entails with it a continuous growth in the s u p p l y of labour-power. But since, on the other hand, this same process of improvement of technique leads to a relative decrease in the entrepreneurs' need for living labour of workers, the d e m a n d f o r l a b o u r - p o w e r n e c e s s a r i l y l a g s b e h i n d its s u p p l y, as a result of which the dependence of wage labour on capital increases and the l e v e l of its e x p l o i t a t i o n b y c a p i t a l r i s e s. The share of the working class in the total mass of material wealth created by its labour c o n s t a n t l y d e c r e a s e s. Thus improvement of technique, signifying an increase in the productivity of labour and growth of social wealth, conditions in bourgeois society an increase in social inequality, an increase in the distance between the rich and the poor, a multiplication of the difficulties of the struggle for existence and all the deprivations and sufferings connected with it.